Passage: Ring Lardner Jr., 85

Share

Passage: Ring Lardner Jr., 85

The son of legendary humorist and baseball writer Ring Lardner, Lardner Jr. was the last surviving member of the Hollywood Ten, a group of screenwriters who were jailed and blacklisted during the McCarthy witch hunt. He won two Academy Awards for screenwriting – he penned Woman of the Year in 1942 and MASH in 1970 – but between 1947 and the early 1960s had a tough time finding work because of his political beliefs. Lardner was a Communist, a matter he pointedly refused to discuss before his inquisitors. "I could answer the question exactly the way you want," he told Rep. J. Parnell Thomas, a New Jersey Republican, during a hearing in 1947, "but if I did, I would hate myself in the morning."